If the most recent link on this page is not current, it means
Leigh is off-duty and the latest, most up-to-the-minute Botanical Link by Scott Russell
will be atScott's Botanical Links,
on the University of Oklahoma, Norman server.

The Allergy Glossary published by HON, an international
not-for-profit portal to medical information on the internet, has information
on the major tree, weed, and grass species having pollens that cause allergic
reactions. Browsing the Glossary alphabetically reveals the medical terms and
species today's botanist needs to keep in step. Site by The Health on the Net
Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland.(****)LF

Anyone studying bogs or fens, or
both, will find invaluable information compiled on this website of an Irish
bogs conservation charity."Peatlands Around the World" tours the global
occurrence of peatlands by continent and by country. See a Siberian oligo-mesotrophical
through-flow fen, a New Zealand low-alpine string bog and island tarn wetland
complex, cushion-plant bogs and every other kind of bog and fen. The Information
and Fact Sheets are excellent, on the structure and importance of bogs, sphagnum
and other bog vegetation, and some surprising topics like "Bog Butter."
And, you may find out how to build your own bog at this site
by the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, Dublin, Ireland.(****)LF

Here's a convenient place to search, in particular,
articles dating from 1998 Ecology, Ecologist, Bioscience, Science News, Science World,
and The Sciences. Theoretically it is a most generous service to enable browsing
full text articles so effortlessly. But the advertisement frame is a monstrosity. A search
for "flower" in the magazine Science World, geared for children 7-10
turns up gambling banners on every page. So what's up with that? Site by Looksmart, San
Francisco, CA (**)LF

This is a resource website for aquatic biology, produced by
AECOS, an environmental consulting firm which has completed 800 projects in the Central
Pacific over a span of thirty years. The illustrated "Keys to the Aquatic Biota of
the Hawaiian Islands" are not only totally cool, but the Instructions are a fun
introduction to dichotomous keys in general. Impatient types can go straight to the "List of Species from Aquatic Environments (Brackish & Fresh Water)
in the Hawaiian Islands" and check out the
Algae, Higher Plants, Invertebrates, Insects (which, yes are invertebrates), and
Vertebrates Lists, with many species linked to bio-images. Natural History Links are very
well planned to provide relevant material on Oceans, Islands, and Ecosystems at this site
by Eric Guinther, AECOS, Inc., Kailua, HI.(****)LF

PCA is a consortium of ten federal and 145 non-federal "cooperators" working together to
solve problems of native plant extinction and native habitat restoration. Of primary concern are escalating threats to ecosystems from invasive species
and over-collection of plants in the wild. The "Weeds Gone Wild" project publishes invasive plant Fact Sheets
online and is looking for more authors. "Green Medicine" explains how today's
commercial-scale quest for herbal remedies may result in extinctions. Check out the
"Traveling Artist" project featuring modern botanical illustrations
(copyrighted), in watercolor, of Great Plains Region and Southwest/Intermountain Region
wildflowers. Site by Plant Conservation Alliance, Bureau of Land Management, Washington,
DC.(****)LF

Here's a good idea from Australia- National Eutrophication
Management. Ecologists and microbiologists will appreciate NEMP's January 2000 technical
report "Physical and nutrient
factors controlling algal succession and biomass in Burrinjuck Reservoir" and the
workshop report"Factors controlling algal growth and composition in
reservoirs." Harmful algal blooms cost
community and Government hundreds of millions yearly. This program seeks to do more than
just take the phosphates out of laundry products, by addressing agricultural, mining,
irrigation, and drainage impacts as they contribute to nutrient enrichment in significant
waterbodies and catchments. An exciting color brochure in
pdf format, "The Cost of Algal Blooms" explains whose responsible for these
great big globs of blue-green goop offensive to man and other animals. Site by NEMP Online, Dr. Richard Davis,
coordinator; Canberra.(****)LF

This cooperative project to provide Forest Resources and
Forestry Information for the Public does an excellent job introducing a number of Florida
trees, the origin of soils, forest ecology and pathology.The online book Insects and
Diseases: Important Problems of Florida's Forest and Shade Tree Resources by
Edward L. Barnard, Pathologist, and Wayne N. Dixon, Entomologist, has
illustrated chapters detailing "Concepts of Entomology" and "Concepts of
Tree Disease." Find also Trees of Florida with a hot-linked list of
predominant forest trees; sections on upland and bottomland forest ecosystems, a forest
terminology glossary and lots of material in the Site Index of this site by Christopher M.
Demers and Dr. Alan J. Long, School of Forest Resources and Conservation,University
of Florida, Gainesville.(****)LF

The original paper atlas, published by the Utah Museum of
Natural History in 1988 mapped the collection locations of some 2,000 species following a
seven year study of 400,000 specimens. Now the data has been transposed into a Geographic
Information System containing 72,000 collection locations in Utah. Indexed by family, each
species is mapped on a page also bearing a text link to a search engine query for the
species. Atlas authored by Beverly J. Albee, Leila M. Shultz, and Sherel Goodrich; website
by R. Douglas Ramsey, Department of Geography and Earth Resources, Utah State University,
Logan.(****)LF

Botanical art is more than great wall decor- it must be
sufficiently accurate to distinguish species. So it is some accomplishment for an artist
to rise to the rank of great botanist as well. Online highlights of an exhibit at
University of Delaware Library summarize the development of botanical illustration from
the early books to the present, with selections from categories of Herbals, Travel
and Exploration, Scientific Botany, Women Artists, Seed Catalogs, and Modern Botanicals.
Find out about the artists, view beautiful illustrations, and exploit the bibliography at
this site by the University of Delaware Library Special Collections, Iris Snyder, Curator;
Newark, Delaware.(****)LF

Visitors to South Florida, and
new residents, frequently assume many of the urban plantings are "native" when
in fact they are Australian. Though the melaleuca/casuarina monocultures began back when
folks killed all the nicest birds for hat feathers, it was in the early 1970's when
builders discovered certain Australian trees could not be killed by the most inept
landscapers, that nurserymen outdid each other to offer practically all-Australian stock.
Now we are all sneezing our heads off and in most municipalities it is no longer illegal
to cut down an Australian tree without a permit. But for those who are unsure of their
Florida plants, or for those headed for Australia, The Magic of Australian Plants has
a beautiful Guide and Photo Gallery. Site by The Association of Societies for Growing
Australian Plants, Canberra, Queensland.(****)LF

Duke University has been maintaining a field laboratory in
Water Conservation Area 2 (WCA-2)in the central everglades for eight years,
though Floridians seldom hear of it. We think they keep quiet because they have to
borrow airboats and data from the very agencies which ruined the everglades. However the
Wetland Center website manages to explain in a very nice way," In addition to the
many national legislation acts addressing environmental protection and water quality that
were created during the 1960s, the Florida legislature, in 1972, enacted several of
its own. Among these was ... the establishment of the South Florida Water Management
District (SFWMD). The enactment of this legislation had drastic effects on the dynamics of
water management in the region." For example, South Florida is on water restrictions
now because the District has let too much water out of Lake Okeechobee. It is the District
which introduced us to Xeriscape and other desert survival practices. Along with the
history of anthropogenic effects on the ecosystem, Duke's Field Trip presents everglades
hydrology, geology, and biology, including details on plant communities. Site by the
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences,Dr. Curtis J.
Richardson, Director; Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.(****)LF

Great reading and beautifully produced as a website, every
botanist and biologist in America ought to have NCSU's College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences' quarterly publication Perspectives on their desktop. Four fabulous
years of issues are available to date, covering all sorts of work, people, and university
goings-on. This Spring's Perspectives encompass dune restoration, plant
protection, turfgrass considerations, and whether pigs have manure which can become
ethanol. Don't miss this site by the Perspectives Staff, CALS, North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, NC.(****)LF

Concerned with balancing commercial development and
exploitation of India's biodiversity with provision of just benefits to the indigenous
peoples who are custodians of numerous commercially interesting resources, FRIS publishes
information on their social customs, life styles, medicinal and other useful plants in the
states of Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Andhra Prades and Kerala. "Plant
Information" by species lists local names for the plant, uses in healthcare,
references, and sometimes botanical illustration. The photographs and details of tribal
life are captivating. Find out about what makes Sacred Groves sacred and why Orissa is
probably a secondary center of the origin of rice cultivation, at this site by the
M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, Cuttack, Orissa, India.(****)LF

If your doctor is the the tight-lipped type who won't discuss
your own personal biology with you, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop has a
website to empower consumers with the best prescription- knowledge. More than just another
index of medical abstracts and disease entries, the virtual health center covers the
health news and topics today's personal physician may forget to mention. The "Drug
Checker" reveals contraindications and interactions of medications; there are videos,
and resources for determining one's ideal weight, diet, and likelihood to contract
maladies. A medical encyclopedia includes information on medically significant (poisonous)
plants. Site by drkoop.com, Austin, Texas.(****)LF

Not since New York Botanical Garden 1937 has there been an 8'
5" Amorphophallus titanum inflorescence like the current one at
University of Wisconsin, where it is reported, "At 1:30 p.m. on Monday, June 11, the
top half of the titan arum's spire-like spadix fell over, exhausted by its titanic
reproductive effort." Such exhaustion is a
sight to behold,and the fate of the spadix is fully documentedby
web-cam, time lapse photos, a growth chart, and the exciting tale of
cross-pollination with an arum from Florida. This is the type of plant that stimulates
enthusiasm for botany, so the Greenhouse provides complete promotional materials-
shirts, postcards, posters, signed lithographs- to memorialize what is referred to as the
"stinking beauty." Site by University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of
Botany.(****)LF

Not intended for botanical scrutiny, Bulb.com, which
concludes in "Bulb Basics" it is nevertheless safe to call all those underground
things bulbs, is U.S. press for the Dutch bulb industry. Its materials are copyright free
to print, broadcast, and cyber-journalists. There are some exceptional images of plants
available grouped according to flowering season, along with landscape guides and cut
flower arranging information. Noteworthy is the section on "History, Myths, and
Romance," with interesting tales like the Great Tulip Commodity Crash of 1637. Be
astounded at the amazing prices paid for beauty in the olden days at this site bytheNetherlands Flower Bulb Information Center (NFIC Parent Office) =
IBC:Internationaal Bloembollen Centrum, Hillegom, Holland. (****)LF

This page, part of a larger site on environmental estrogens
and hormones discusses the occurrence of phytoestrogens in our food and whether they may
be beneficial or a health risk, either or neither. Consumers may want to think twice
before pouring soy milk on their wheat or rice cereal, and clearly we are all probably
eating a lot more soy than we realize these days. As the question of whether this is a
good thing or bad thing stimulates more controversy, botanists will want to know what's
being reported by the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier
Universities, New Orleans, LA.(****)LF

Cornell Composting makes the unfathomable mountain of New
York State's food scraps more interesting than you'd think. For chemical and biological
processes of the compost pile are an arena for the study of microbes, invertebrates, and
biodegradation. The Science and Engineering section of the website opens with a Note to
the Casual Composter then jumps right into hard core biology and engineering principles.
Detailed illustrated text includes Ideas for Student Projects. Other sections of the site
offer information on self-composting and other weird forms of composting, Cornell's
compost work, information for schools, and a Teacher's Page. Site by Tom Richard,
Nancy Trautmann, Marianne Krasny, Sue Fredenburg and Chris Stuart,Cornell
Waste Management Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.(****)LF

Along with pursuing the deep botanical aspects of life,
keeping up with food botany is essential to dispelling annoying myths as to what is
natural; and to not looking surprised when earnestly asked for advice about the array of
plants showing up in foody places which frankly are not in the palette of the North
American botanist. So count on Food Resource which organizes a variety of resources on
today's plant products, including phytochemicals, how they are produced, processed and
used in the most important activity of food production. Site by Food Resource, Nutrition
and Food Management, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. (****)LF

The Everglades made a new friend today when the President
flew to South Florida for a tour of Everglades National Park. That was early this
afternoon, and before dark we heard he came up with a plan to Save the Everglades. This is
progress. So far years of South Florida Water Management, The Army Corp of Engineers, and
every bureaucrat who could get in on the act spending millions of juicy funds on
experimental simplistic solutions which failed or reported dubious results makes one think
we ought to just Save the Money. Hence, this website of the conservation organization
Friends of the Everglades is recommended for a quick overview of some of the problems
requiring heroic measures to Save the Everglades that the new plan must address. For
example, if the new plan doesn't have the keywords "evapotranspiration" or
"subsidence" (not subsidy) we may be in for another round of radical spending
without direction. Two articles explain why, and a short biography of Marjory Stoneman
Douglas, the organization's founder, gives a brief history of everglades destruction. Site
by Friends of the Everglades, Miami, Florida.(****)LF